Sacred 2:Book 4: Philios - the First Paladin

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From the Lore of the Nephalem
Book 4

Philios - the First Paladin

Philios, according to legend, was a bold and powerful first-generation Nephalem, who lived in the early days of Ancaria. After a love affair with the angel Lycander he became the first Paladin of Ancaria.

Origins

Philios walked the world with a power unrivaled by any except for Rathma. The angel Lycander felt drawn to him and the two fell in love.

When Lilith massacred Ancaria's renegade angels and demons, Lycander fled back to Heaven, though maintained contact with Philios through an artifact in his possession called the Sightless Eye. However, she ended the romance after her fellow angels discovered she was communicating with someone outside Heaven, and insisted that Philios hide the Eye so that Heaven and the Creator would not learn of Ancaria's existence. Philios grieved, but nonetheless obeyed, hiding the Eye on Dyr-Lain. The eye remained hidden for centuries until it was discovered by the daughters of Helgrotha.

Legacy

Philios continued to aimlessly adventure throughout Ancaria for years. One day while visiting a cabal of monks known as the Akarat, Philios was struck with a series of apocalyptic prophecies, perhaps brought on by his prolonged use of the Sightless Eye. In these visions Philios saw the Prime Evils, great and powerful demons, let loose upon the world, and cataclysmic battles between the forces of Heaven and Hell that would rend Ancaria apart. The monks recorded these visions, and thus Zakarum, the religion of the Light, was born.

During the mid-twelfth century, after the Church of Zakarum had gained prominence in the East, the Church decreed that the visions of Philios would be spread throughout the known world in order to redeem the masses. Thus, the Church selected a group of its most charismatic and devoted priests and sent them on a mission to proselytize the people of the West.

Unfortunately, the Church had not prepared these men for the rigors of travel nor the hazards of the world. The priests who survived their missions recounted tales of harsh weather, inadequate supplies, attacks from bandits and even encounters with horrible monsters. To ensure the success of future missions, Philios himself set about training holy warriors, Paladins, to accompany and safeguard their missionaries. In practice, these "Protectors of the Word" proved to be more successful at converting the native peoples than the Priests that they were assigned to defend. Impressing the locals with daring deeds, powerful weapons, and martial prowess was far more convincing than the condemnations of a soft-spoken monk. However, once the Word had been spread to every major city of the West, the "Protectors of the Word" faded from public view, and indeed Philios himself, now active for centuries, seemed to vanish all too quickly into legend.

The Inquisition

Some decades later, Paladins were again called into service. During the height of the Dragon War, the Church commenced a second campaign of conversion. This time, however, Philios had long since faded into legend, and the unconvincible were deemed evil heretics. The Inquisition spread through the lands like a tempest, laying waste to all suspected of demonic possession or corruption. Leading this crusade was a new generation of Paladins, known as the "Hand of Zakarum." These Inquisitors swept through the lands, expunging the taint of demonic contamination wherever they found it.

In the midst of this bloody crusade, a rebellion arose within the ranks of the Paladins of Zakarum. The rebels condemned the methods of the Inquisition, proclaiming that the new Order of Paladins should honor Philios' words by protecting the innocent, and that the evil corruption was rooted in their forebear's failure. They resolved to fight the true source of corruption, the Prime Evils. And so, these rebellious Paladins left their Inquisitor brethren and ventured out into the word to stop the demonic forces. The more powerful Inquisiton itself eventually came to praise Rathma and Trang'Oul over Philios and the Light, thus leading to a schism throughout the mainstream religions of Ancaria.

See Also

• Philios Development Thread on DarkMatters